"Magic Circle" Law Firm – Dispute Resolution Team

PA London secured preferred supplier status to this "magic circle" firm in 2005. We built a particularly strong relationship with the Dispute Resolution team.

At that time, demand for experienced Legal Secretaries was very high and the candidate-driven nature of the market was forcing firms to compete on salary - not the most sustainable way to recruit staff who will stick around. We got to know the firm and the team and gained a very positive impression of how they managed, supported and developed their support staff. This meant that we could talk about them with honest enthusiasm and recruit for secretaries and PAs to support some really demanding characters.

By looking at the roles in a different way to our competitors, we were able to broaden the pool of candidates available to them. We analysed the core skills required and used that analysis to indentify candidates with transferable experience and skills. The firm were conducting their own skills testing - our assessment and their assessment was consistently on a par. Our management of the recruitment process meant that we could smooth the inevitable delays in decision making which are a feature of dealing with large organisations - the number of people involved means things always take a little longer. In a candidate-driven market, our relationships of trust with our candidates meant that we could maintain their interest throughout the process, leading to the team securing some excellent candidates - despite the tough competition.

This meant that we could talk about them with honest enthusiasm and recruit for secretaries and PAs to support some really demanding characters.